Art of Smooth Pasting (Fundamentals of Pure and Applied Economics) by A. Dixit

Fundamentals of Pure and Applied Economics #55

by Avinash K. Dixit

The main mathematical ideas are presented in a context with which economists will be familiar. Using a binomial approximation to Brownian motion, the mathematics is reduced to simple algebra, progressing to some equally simple limits. The starting point of the calculus of Brownian motion -- "Itô's Lemma" -- emerges by analogy with the economics of risk-aversion. Conditions for the optimal regulation of Brownian motion, including the important, but often mysterious "smooth pasting" condition, are derived in a similar way. Each theoretical derivation is illustrated by developing a significant economic application, drawn mainly from recent research in macro-economics and international economics. br This book aims to widen the understanding and use of stochastic dynamic choice and equilibrium models. It offers a simplified and heuristic exposition of the theory of Brownian motion and its control or regulation, rendering such methods more accessible to economists who do not require a de

Genres: Economics

Paperback

First published May 11, 1993

About the author

Avinash Kamalakar Dixit (born August 6, 1944 in Bombay, India) is an Indian-American economist. He is currently John J. F. Sherrerd '52 University Professor of Economics Emeritus at Princeton University, Distinguished Adjunct Professor of Economics at Lingnan University (Hong Kong) and Senior Research Fellow at Nuffield College, Oxford.

Dixit received a B.Sc. from Bombay University in 1963 in Mathematics and Physics, a B.A. from Cambridge University in 1965 in Mathematics (Corpus Christi College, First Class), and a Ph.D. in 1968 from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Economics.

Dixit has been the John J. F. Sherrerd '52 University Professor of Economics at Princeton University since July 1989. He is also Distinguished Adjunct Professor of Economics at Lingnan University (Hong Kong) and Senior Research Fellow at Nuffield College, Oxford. He previously taught at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, at the University of California, Berkeley, at Balliol College, Oxford and at the University of Warwick. In 1994 Dixit received the first-ever CES Fellow Award from the Center for Economic Studies at the University of Munich.

Dixit has also held visiting scholar positions at the International Monetary Fund and the Russell Sage Foundation. He was President of the Econometric Society in 2001, and was Vice-President (2002) and President (2008) of the American Economic Association. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1992 and the National Academy of Sciences in 2005.

With Robert Pindyck he is author of “Investment Under Uncertainty” (Princeton University Press, 1994; ISBN 0691034109), the first text-book exclusively about the real options approach to investments, and described as “a born-classic” in view of its importance to the theory.

(from Wikipedia)